Trek to Auden's Col - Oct 2008

Auden's Col

Auden's Col is a mountain pass situated in the central Garhwal region. It connects the mountain peaks Jogin I (6465m) and Gangotri III (6580m) and is at a height of around 5242m. Auden's Col binds two glaciers on either sides - Khatling glacier on the south and Jogin Bhamak on the north. A little distance lower to Jogin Bhamak is the Gangotri III glacial system. Auden's Col is approachable from Gangotri and one can trek up to Kedarnath following Auden's Col and Khatling glacier. Auden's Col gets its name from J B Auden, a famous British geologist. He first explored the region in the year 1939.




The trek was being organized by Lacchhii of bakpackers. I got in touch with Lacchhii through Bharata who was seriously considering doing this trek and was looking for travel partners. After a lot of deliberation and assessment of my current physical condition I decided to join the trek.

Auden's Col is a less frequented trekking route in this region of the Himalaya compared to the Khatling Glacier and Kalindi Khal. So not much information was available about the route itself. The one blog that we heavily relied on during our preparation was by Mr. VSK Sharma and the information provided there came in very handy during the trek. It was apparent from the pictures and the blog reports that this was going to be a very challenging and technically demanding trek. Bharata and I compared notes almost everyday for about a month regarding the list of equipment required and the physical training. These notes proved vital for our preparation and we were fairly satisfied with our readiness when we left for the trek.

The group of trekkers consisted of Manjesh, Bharata, Dip, Sai Prakash, Lacchhii, Shashank and myself

[L-R] Manjesh, Bharata, Dip, Sai Prakash, Lacchhii, Shashank, Chinmay

The trip was scheduled between Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2008 and the initial itinerary of the trip was:

Gangotri to Ghuttu via Auden's Col
30.09.08 Bangalore Delhi -- By Train
1.10.08 Journey
2.10.08 Delhi to Rishikesh
3.10.08 Rishikesh to Gangotri By Bus/ Taxi. Stay at GMVN/ Hotel.
4.10.08 Gangotri -- Rest day.
5.10.08 Gangotri to Nala Camp
6.10.08 Nala Camp to Rudugaira BC
7.10.08 Rudugaira BC to Col BC
8.10.08 Rudugaira BC - Rest day and acclimatization.
9.10.08 Col BC to Khatling Glacier
10.10.08 Glacier Camp to Waterfall Camp
11.10.08 Waterfall Camp to Chowki
12.10.08 Chowki to Kharsoli
13.10.08 Kharsoli to Gangi
14.10.08 Gangi to Ghuttu
15.10.08 Ghuttu to Haridwar By vehicle
16.10.08 Haridwar to Delhi By vehicle
17.10.08 Delhi to Bangalore Journey

Note: All alititude measurements mentioned here are from Bharata's altimeter. The altimeter was calibrated for 3000m at Gangotri

Oct 2: Travel to Delhi - Rishikesh
Most of us left by Oct 2 early morning flights to Delhi. A few of them had left earlier by train to Delhi. The idea was to meet up at the ISBT, Delhi before proceeding to Rishikesh. Bharata and I were the last to reach Delhi and we boarded the 3pm bus to Rishikesh. It was a hot and dusty ride and the distance of ~240 kms seemed an eternity. The bus did not reach a max speed of even 40 km/h and the state of the roads definitely did not help. Eventually we arrived dusty and tired at around 10:30 pm to the GMVN guest house in Rishikesh. The rest of the gang had checked in the evening and were having a good time getting to know each other. Bharata and I quickly gobbled up our packed lunch and crashed to get in some rest before the long journey to Gangotri.

Oct 3: Edge of the seat excitement from Rishikesh to Gangotri
The chaiwala at the roadside tafri who also doubled up as a taxi cab agent had promised to send a jeep that would take us to Uttarkashi. As promised a cab came thundering along at 5am and we all groggily got into it. The polite, smiling driver soon turned into a reckless maniac as the sun rose. We realized why this is called the Dev Bhoomi - there was a bunch of people in a cab collectively praying for their lives and bowing at every roadside temple :-)

The driver was ripping around the hairpin bends and blind curves at breakneck speed and even threatened to push the bigger vehicles off into the bottomless valley. Obviously no one ever told our angry young man about the virtues of "yield" and "right of way" on ghat sections. To make matters worse our driver started feeling drowsy and was driving even faster in an attempt to reach Uttarkashi before afternoon. Soon everyone started cajoling and pleading with the driver to drive slowly. This only made him driver more rash and we managed to make it to Uttarkashi by the skin of our teeth. I gave a big whoop of joy as soon as we reached and all of us ran from the jeep with a big sigh of relief.

In Uttarkashi we met up with Himalaya Sherpa to whom Lacchhii had outsourced the organization of the expediton. Himalaya Sherpa was responsible for arranging the porters, guides and the equipment required for this trek. Over lunch he explained all the arrangements made, safety precautions in place etc. Everyone was pretty excited after the lunch meeting with Himalaya Sherpa and we got into our next cab that would take us from Uttarkashi to Gangotri. The journey from Uttarkashi to Gangotri takes about 4-5 hours. The route is very scenic and we got glimpses of snow capped mountains, fast flowing mountain streams, huge apple orchards on the way.







We checked into GMVN, Gangotri at about 5 pm and later that evening attended the famous Ganga aarti performed at the Gangotri temple.

Ganga temple


Oct 4: Acclimatization trek on route to Kedar tal


We decided to go for an acclimatization trek on the route to Kedar tal. The path to Kedar tal started right behind the GMVN guest.

Bhagirathi river in Gangotri
There was a steep ascent at the beginning of the trail and we were walking along the huge gorge created by Bhagirathi river. We could see all the leaf cover was turning yellow – a sign that winter was fast approaching.

Fall Colours
Gorge formed by Bhagirathi

The goal for the day was to gain an altitude of 500m and acclimatize ourselves to that height. We climbed up steadily and reached an altitude of 3540m and decided to stop the climb when we reached a spot from where we caught a glimpse of the mighty Thalaysagar peak (6984m). The trek back to Gangotri took about 2 hours and we were back at the guest house by 3:30 pm

Thalaysagar peak (6984m)
By evening all of our luggage and camping equipment had arrived at GMVN and we crashed to bed early all excited for the trek starting the next day.

Oct 5: Gangotri to Bhoj Karak

We tumbled out of bed at 5:00 am and started the final preparation for the trek. All the porters were also up and doing the final packing and load distribution. The plan was for the porters to carry all our luggage and we would be carrying a day pack with some bare minimum stuff required. We poured over the maps available to us and started the expedition at 7:00am along with one porter.

Route map of our trek – Gangotri to Khatling

The idea was to trek for about an hour before the rest of the porters joined us and then have packed breakfast and walk upto the Nala camp. The path started from behind the GMVN guest house into the pine forest. About two hours into the trek we reached the Rudraganga river gorge. The river was thundering down the valley and its echo could be heard from a very far. We had to cross a log bridge and continue the trek from the other bank of the river.

Log Bridge on Rudraganga river

Steep Climb through the pine forest

We continued walking along the steep incline along the gorge hoping that the porters would catch up with us. All of us were very hungry by now and eagerly awaiting the porters arrival. At around 10am we reached a nice sunny clearing by the banks of the river where we decided to rest and wait till the breakfast arrived.

Posing for photographs waiting for breakfast to arrive

We waited here for about 45 mins but there was no sign of the porters yet. We started wondering if they were having some problems and decided to continue till the camp site, hoping they will catch up with us soon.

After another sustained climb, we crossed the tree line and reached the grasslands. From here we caught the first glimpse of the Gangotri III peak.

First Glimpse of Gangotri III

After crossing a couple of small waterfalls which were rushing to join the Rudraganga and landslide areas, we reached a small campsite at Bhoj Kharak (3640m) at 12 noon. We met two trekkers from Bangalore along with their porters who had already set camp here. They were on their way to scale the Rudugaira peak. We stopped here for some time and continued towards the Nala camp. About 30 mins into the next stage, we were unsure of the path to continue and decided to rest again. I personally was very low on energy since we had not had any breakfast and had been trekking for almost 6 hours now on a steady ascent. While we were waiting here, Lacchhii decided to go back to Bhoj Kharak and send one of the porters from the other trekking group to look out for our porter and guide. Luckily one of our porters Nandu, reached Bhoj Kharak by this time and signaled all of us to return back. We got to know from him that there was shortage of porters and they had issues sharing the load. So the stronger porters among them were going back and forth between Gangotri ferrying the load. We had our packed breakfast of aloo parathas and sat in the kitchen tent pitched by the other trekking party while a steady rain poured outside.

The rains stopped at around 4pm. Bharata and I decided to climb the hills around the campsite so as to get acclimatized to the height. This was a very good outing and Bharata taught some some interesting techniques of descending steep slopes. This came in handy later in the trek.

Our tents arrived late in the evening and we slipped into them thankful that the wait was over. It was not the smoothest of starts for our trek and we hoped things would be better the next day.

Oct 6: Bhoj Kharak to Rudugaira Base Camp

We decided to head straight to the Rudugaira Base Camp bypassing the Nala camp. An hour’s trek was added to the day's journey since we had not achieved our target of Nala camp the previous day. We started at around 9am with Nandu showing us the way. The trek started with a steep incline of about 150m after which was there was steady path leading to the Nala camp. We reached the Nala camp (4000m) at about 10:15 am

View of Bhoj Kharak camp site from up the hill

Enroute to Nala Camp

We walked along a well formed path – mostly steep climb till we reached a landslide area with a waterfall. Once we crossed this water fall, there was a really tough stretch of continuous steep ascent which was more than 70* at places. After an hour or more of this difficult leg, we reached the Rudugaira Base Camp (4350m) at 12:30 pm. The camp site offered excellent views of the snow peaks aournd us. We had the Rudugaira peak to the South-West, Gangotri I, Gangotri II, Gangotri III to the South and the Jogin I to the South-East. We also caught the first glimpse of Auden’s Col from the campsite.

Rudugaira Base Camp

Rudugaira peak

We sat in a rock shelter enjoying the view and ate our packed lunch. There was good sunshine and we could see clouds forming over the peaks in the horizon. Within a matter of 15 mins, the whole place was covered with clouds and it started snowing heavily. We ran for cover and sat in a rock shelter. The porters were still on the way and luckily they arrived within an hour’s time. The porters pitched the tents at around 3pm and we got into them for safety and warmth.

Things were very disorganized on the porters side yet and there was no fair distribution of load. Moreover there was water scarcity in the camp and we had to melt snow to drink water. Lacchhii decided to take matters in his own hands and started helping our guides Shailu, Babloo and Nandu get the house in order.

Oct 7: Rest Day and Acclimatization

It was a cold morning and we recorded the temperature at -4* C. There was no particular agenda for the day and all of us were trying out the gaiters and Koflach snow boots provided by the porters. Bharata and I decided that we were comfortable with the Lafuma shoes that we had got and go ahead with them. We decided to go for an acclimatization walk in the morning and started along the ridge of the Rudugaira peak and climbed upto an altitude of 4550m. It was a bright and sunny morning and from here we got a very clear view of the Jogin I, Gangotri I, II, III peaks and Auden’s Col.

Jogin I

Auden's Col
Gangotri III
Gangotri II
Gangotri I

View on the Gangotri side

Panorama of all the peaks

We stayed here for about 30 mins, but there were clouds forming on the horizon and we decided to hurry back to the camp site. We reached the camp site at around 12:45 pm and had a hot lunch. Soon enough there was snowfall again and the entire campsite was carpeted in a white blanket of snow. The temperature dipped to below zero Celsius again. My water bottle was frozen solid the next morning.

Oct 8: Rudugaira Base Camp to Auden’s Col Base Camp

It was a very cold morning again, but the skies were clear and I was able to capture some magical moments atop the Gangotri peaks

Gangotri III
Gangotri II
Gangotri I
The idea was to start early in the morning and reach the Col BC by noon. However seeing so much snowfall, some of the porters got scared and decided not to proceed further. This was a big setback to the entire expedition. To complicate matters a bit, Manjesh was suffering from an acute case of Mountain sickness and was not in a shape to proceed further. Finally after a lot of discussions, a few porters decided to leave with the extra rations and other luggage that was not required. Manjesh too decided to accompany the porters back to Gangotri.

The rest of us started towards the Col BC at around 9:30 am. We started walking along the ridge of the Gangotri mountain and had to cross some rocky morains and the Gangotri III glacier. The day’s trek consisted walking mainly along the steep ridges and we managed to reach the Col BC at 1:00 pm. The Col BC (4560m) was setup along the Gangotri III glacier system.

Glacial Cave
Trek along the rocky ridges

Gangotri III glacier
Snout of the Gangotri III glacier
Setting up camp on Gangotri III glacial system
Snowfall in the afternoon

We managed to setup the camp just in time. There was a very heavy snowfall in the afternoon and it snowed continuously for a couple of hours. It was miserable sitting in the tent and this was probably one of the coldest evenings of my life.

Oct 9: Col Base Camp to Advanced Base Camp

There was lots of planning and deliberations to cross Auden’s col. The plan was to start at 5am. However due to the extreme cold conditions, we could not start before 7:30am. After about an hour of climbing on snow ridges, we came to a huge wall of ice. We could not have climbed this wall without ropes. So our guides Shailu and Babloo, who had the crampons, climbed the wall and fixed a rope with the help of an ice axe. We took turns to take support of this rope and climb up the ice wall. The rope was fixed to about 80% of the ice wall and from here, we had to use our hands to scramble up the ice slope.

Shailu and Babloo fixing ropes on the ice wall

Taking turns scrambling along the ice wall
The other side of the ice wall was rocky and we were able to descend easily. From here onwards we had to walk over a ridge that snow ridge and it was steady climb to the Col ABC. The last part of the trek was tricky when we had to walk along a steep hill side which was covered knee deep in snow. Our guides helped us cross this snow line one person at a time.
Walking along the ridge line

Shailu, Babloo and Nandu helping us cross the slippery gully

Auden’s Col from the Col ABC

We reached the Advanced Col BC (4720m) which was on the Jogin Bhamak at around 12:00 noon and our guide Babloo decided we would pitch camp here. It was estimated that we would take another 2 hours to reach the Col and 3 more hours to reach the other side. This was too much of a risk given the weather changes. A few of our team mates were also going a little slow that day and hence it was a good idea to settle down and recharge our batteries.

Oct 10 – Col ABC to Auden’s Col

God had blessed us with clear weather the previous day and the entire troop was in high spirits to start the final assault towards Auden’s Col. The sun was shining bright and we started the trek at 8am. We started on the gully in front of our camp and started the gradual climb on the right of the gully. After some time of walking through knee deep snow, the guides asked us to stop and decided to go further ahead to ascertain the safety of the route.

Starting from Col ABC

Walking up the steep icy slope

Waiting for Shailu and Babloo to mark a path for us

We waited almost 30 mins before they returned and were asked to change course since the route ahead was directly in path of the Jogin Bhamak glacier and its crevasses. Nandu who accompanied Shilu and Babloo had a close shaved when he slipped into waist high snow and barely escaped falling into the crevasse. We went down the gully and climbed onto the next ridge. From here it was climb, climb, climb again through knee deep snow. The only redeeming factor was the spectacular scenery of the Jogin Bhamak and peaks around us.

Beautiful Ice formations on the glacier

Galcier Tables

Once we had crossed the beautiful ice formations and the glacier tables, we took a break. Shailu asked me to finish off my energy drink and dry fruits saying that this would be the last break and from now on it would be a continuous climb to the top. The climb to the top looked very difficult from here. We had to negotiate the bottomless crevasses, knee high depth snow and the 70-80* incline from now on. One more worrying factor for me personally was it was already 12 noon and the weather could turn bad any moment. Luckily there were only a few passing clouds and with a silent prayer I started off following others.

Climbing up the slippery slope
Path to Auden's Col

Dodging the crevasses on the way up
There was one particularly tough stretch and we had to climb roped up. Babloo and Lacchii were supporting the rope while Bharata and I climbed up. Once on top, Babloo and Lacchii went forward to create a path for the rest of us, while Bharata and I took turns holding the rope for the rest of the team to climb. Our hands, legs and hinds were numb with cold by the time everyone was up the rope. From here, there was another 70* climb to the top. We were able to reach the top by around 3:30pm. The reading on Bharata’s altimeter showed 5242m. The porters did a very good job of climbing to the top with very heavy loads and they were the real hero of the day. All the team managed to reach the top by about 4:30pm and there was a mix of joy and relief on every members face. We joined together for a pooja on top of Auden’s Col and thanked God for having been kind to give us the strength and good weather for the climb.

Auden's Col is characterized by the rock formations on either side known as "Rabbit's ears". We had heard a lot about it and it was very satisfying to be seeing them in person.

Finally on top - the view of the Khatling Glacier on the other side



Performing pooja on the Col

Rabbit's ears - the rock formations on either side of the Col


Crevasses on Khatling glacier


Posing on top of Auden's Col

The climb down the other side was estimated to take at least 2 hours and it was almost 5pm. So taking a lot of risk, we decided to camp on Auden’s Col itself. There was not enough space on the Col, so the porters pitched only the kitchen tent and it was decided that all 15 of us will spend the night in the same tent. The tent was pitched in the most precarious of places – an ice pond on one side and a huge 100m drop on the other. We decided to stay put in the tent till morning and not venture out in the night. As evening fell, the temperature started falling and we all slipped into our sleeping bags, huddled together for warmth.

Oct 11: Auden’s Col to Bakriwala Camp

The going was good till about 12am, when suddenly there was a huge storm with gale force winds which threatened to sweep the tent into the huge valley below. The entire tent was shaking and the tent’s outer cover was torn to pieces. Snow started entering the sleeping bags and honestly speaking we were all praying for dear lives. At some point in time, the pole supporting the tent collapsed and the porters put in a huge effort to put the tent back up in shape. We soon realized that staying on top of the Col was a huge mistake. The storm continued all night and did not stop till about 10 am. The whole tent was a mess by then – not the mention the huge dent in everybody’s confidence. When the weather turned a little better, Shailu and Babloo stepped out to take a stock of the situation. There was huge snowfall in the night and the path to descend down the Auden’s Col was covered in snow. There was a waist deep snow field to negotiate as soon as we got down the Col and we had almost 3-4 hours of walk before we reached Khatling Glacier, whose crevasses were looking scarier than the previous evening.

Shailu, Babloo, Lacchii and Bharata climbed up the side of the rabbit’s ear to take a closer look at the other side. After lots of deliberations and keeping safety aspects paramount, it was decided not to get down to the Khatling glacier side and go back by the same route we came. There was huge relief among all of us and we started the descent down Auden’s Col at about 11:30am – praying for the weather to hold till we reached a safe altitude. It was decided to walk longer today if the weather held good and reach as low as possible. We passed the Advanced Col BC, descended down the huge ice wall to the Auden’s Col BC and went further down to a camp known as the Bakriwala camp. This camp is regularly used by shepherds and is lower than the snow line. Better still, we had a running stream near to this camp which made things very easy for us. I managed to get some spectacular pictures of the sunset to add to my sense of relief and satisfaction of having climbed up the Auden’s Col

Our guide cum cook - Babloo Thapa
Clouds taking an orange hue during sunset

Sunset over Jogin
moonrise

Oct 12: Bakriwala camp to Gangotri

Oct 12 was a very pleasant morning – bright sunshine, relaxed people, a visit to the camp by a herd of Bharal and the most motivating thought – getting back to civilization by sunset. Babloo and Shailu promised us to take us through a short cut, a route that bypassed the Rudugaira Base Camp and taking us straight to Bhoj Kharak camp and Gangotri.

We had a huge feast for breakfast – puri, peas gravy, daal, rice and papad. All of us ate till we would have dropped, but held ourselves together since we had another 6-7 hours of downhill trek ahead of us. The route took us deep into the valley along the streams that form the Rudraganga river. It was an very difficult descent as we had to walk over huge rock boulders and cross the gushing mountain streams a couple of times. It was extremely demanding on the knees, but we continued at a very brisk pace, so as to make it Gangotri in time.

Glorious sunrise

Walking down the valley
Bharal
Farthest view of the peaks we walked on ..
We reached Nala camp at around 1pm and walked steadily downwards till we reached Gangotri at around 4:30pm. I was so hungry by the time we reached, that I sat and polished down 6 plates of bread toast and 2 cups of tea in one sitting :-)

Back in Gangotri

Lacchii, Dip, Shailu and Nandu had reached much earlier than us and had already made arrangements for our onward journey to Uttarkashi. Once all porters and members of our team had reached, we got back into the jeeps and headed towards Uttarkashi – reaching Uttarkashi at about 9:30 in the night.

Oct 13, 14 – Journey back to Bangalore

We had booked at taxi at 8:30 am from Uttarkashi to Haridwar. Reached Haridwar around 6pm and stayed in the Karnataka Bhavan Dharmashala. Next morning we booked another taxi to take us back to Delhi and then boarded the flight back to Bangalore.

It had been a very exciting trip. One that I will savour and look back upon for many years to come.